Home Game Report

02 Sep 2004

Wednesday brought a home game at a new venue. This was the first of lkim’s new Wednesday night series, live from his new place in the historic West Adams section of Los Angeles. It was the usual one table sit-n-go format with a $20 buy in + $5 for pizza and beer. 2nd gets buy in back, winner takes the rest. lkim had advised me earlier in the day that I would not be repeating my win from our last home game.

wy announced that he would not be drinking in an effort to play better. I then cracked a Newcastle and announced that I was not going to eat any pizza and get shitfaced by drinking heavily on an empty stomach.

lkim was his aggressive self early, playing almost every hand of the first two orbits. He found him self short stacked when his king-high flush was beaten by wy’s ace high flush. He spent the rest of the night trying to claw back. ms and dt were also very aggressive and were building big stacks.

I had my usual very tight (for this game) game on display. Played very few hands while action was big around me. With the blinds at 25/50 and a few limpers in, I saw AK on the button. I raised to 300, hoping to drive out most of the limpers. ms on my left in the small blind called and everyone else folded. Flop was AK7. ms bet 100 into me. I slowly called. Turn was a rag. He bet a couple of hundred and I raised to 800 (probably too small a bet here). He called and the river paired the 7. I put him on a big ace, maybe AJ or AQ. I pushed in the rest of my chips, which had him slightly covered. His quick call scared the hell out of me. I figured he’d show me A7 or K7 for the house, but he turned over A3 and I had almost doubled up, knocking out the first player of the night. (beer 2)

Another turning point hand in the game. We were down to 5 players. Blinds were 100/200. es and lkim were short stacked. dt calls, es calls, I call from the small blind with 55. I would normally raise with this hand but did not for two reasons. First, 1 short stack was already in the pot and the second was in the big blind and likely to push in. Secondly, dt, the third player, had never limped and then folded to a raise. this meant a raise here would likely have put me up against 2 all-ins and a player I could not likely push out of the pot. I decided I’d try to see the flop cheap, and play fit-or-fold here (beer 3). Either I’d hit my set or get out.

The flop was KQ4. two spades. Checked around. Turn was the J spades. es went all in, I folded, lkim called all in. dt thought for a second and then called, having them both covered by plenty. es turned over K4 for 2 pair. lkim turned over Ax with the ace of spades for the nut flush draw and a straight draw. dt turned over Q7 for second pair! es had to avoid a spade, ten and one of the two remaining queens to stay in the game. lkim needed the spade or the ten. dt had two outs, the queens.

Of course, you know whats coming. The river was a lady and both es and lkim were out on one of the worst beats we’ve seen in our home games.

We were suddenly 3 handed and, while I wasn’t too short, I was definitely in 3rd place. cb had played his careful, tight game and was the chip leader. dt vaulted to 2nd after wiping out lkim and es. also, the Newcastles (4) were starting to take their toll. While I figured I had the most experience of the three of us, I was not in a good spot at that point.

The details of our three handed play elude me a little (beer). but I do remember that the three of us were pretty even in chips at one point, and that I was all in on more than 1 occasion. Finally, cb was allin with 2 pair and dt again sucked out a set on the river, leaving us heads up and me a bit behind.

dt was an aggressive player and had been to my immediate left when we were three handed. during that time, he rarely let me see a cheap flop from the small blind. Once we got heads up, I expected more the same, but he let off the gas some. I picked up some cards and took the lead. The blinds were prohibitive, and by the last hand were 2000/4000. On the final hand, dt put 4000 in the big blind and only had 500 left. I looked down at 63o. I was priced in and had to call. I said as much and we both knew that he was going to throw that 500 in so I made it 4500 and we turned over the cards. He had K7 (I think, possibly K8). the flop was low and I made my straight with a 2 on the turn. Net $115 (I slipped lkim an extra $5 for drinking all his beer).

I realized this morning that this win gives me 4 straight cashes in tourney style home games! This, combined with some good online results of late, the bankroll is looking up.